If you are heavily into films and hearing from directors and actors offering comments on their work long ago when those movie projects first came out you may enjoy the old Matt and Greg Podcasts. The pair listen to and comment on 1990s to early 2000s radio junket interviews.
As I mentioned above if you really get into the finer points of what was going on behind the scenes of many big-name movies these podcasts have a wealth of material for you. The fact that these interviews were conducted so long ago makes them invaluable. Not only do you get intriguing aesthetic takes from the artists themselves AT THE TIME but the hindsight we listeners have here in 2021 provides us with a unique perspective.
During the 1993 interviews with the cast and director of True Romance a young Patricia Arquette mentions getting involved with the project after hearing from “this guy named Harvey Weinstein.” In the Groundhog Day interviews you can detect a bit of the tension between Harold Ramis and Bill Murray – tension which we now know caused them to go decades without speaking to each other. Continue reading
A CHRISTMAS CAROL GOES WRONG (2017) – The players from Great Britain’s Mischief Theater Company strike again in their guise as the Cornley Polytechnic Amateur Dramatic Society. After the absolute disaster they made of their 2016 production of Peter Pan (see Peter Pan Goes Wrong), the Society were banned from the BBC. 
From there the Society mount their own production with their highly flawed but immensely likable players, highlighted by Chris (Henry Shields), Annie (Nancy Zamit), Robert (Henry Lewis) and others. Naturally, a LOT goes wrong.
A JETSON CHRISTMAS CAROL (1985) – Christmas Carol-A- Thon 2021, my 12th annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon, continues here at Balladeer’s Blog! This 1985 animated version of the Dickens classic incorporates the characters from the Hanna Barbera program The Jetsons. They were a family who were the far-future counterparts of the Stone Age family The Flintstones. 
FIRST QUARTERFINAL – The NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS took the field against the MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS. The Red Raiders led 6-3 in the 1st Quarter and 19-10 come Halftime. In the 3rd Quarter the Knights pulled to within 19-17 before Northwestern College won out in the 4th 25-20. 
SECOND QUARTERFINAL – In this game the GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS played the CONCORDIA (MI) CARDINALS. A 7-3 Cardinals edge in the opening Quarter became a 17-10 Vikings lead at the Half. The 3rd Quarter ended with Concordia University trailing by just 17-16 but it was all Grand View U in the 4th as they won the game 31-16. 
GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #4 (April 1975) 
Our hero defeats three of the four and a bullet fired from a rooftop by the Punisher kills the fourth. The Punisher flees the scene while Spider-Man takes care of the still-frightened woman. An ambulance and some cop cars show up on the scene. The police insist Spider-Man must come in to answer questions regarding the deaths of Captain John Stacy and Norman Osborn, both of whom he is mistakenly suspected of killing.
If it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, then regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know it’s the day when I kick off my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon in which I review several versions of A Christmas Carol. I look at movies, television shows, radio shows and books which adapt the Dickens classic. Every year I present new reviews and a few old classics since new readers will have missed them. 
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1943) – An early experimental broadcast on December 22nd, 1943 from Dumont TV’s station W2XWV in New York, presumably to mark the 100 year anniversary of the publication of A Christmas Carol. 
CHRISTMAS, 1944 (1944) – This half hour production of the Carol aired on December 19th, 1944 at 8:45 PM as part of the Video Varieties television series. Dumont TV station WABD in New York presented the show in conjunction with WOR-TV in New Jersey. Reviews of the time indicated it was an adaptation of the story of Scrooge set in 1944.
JAMES BATMAN (1966) – HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Balladeer’s Blog takes a Turkey Day look at a film from the Philippines. This movie teams up Batman, Robin and James Bond as they battle an evil organization called C.L.A.W. It’s another of the many unauthorized Batman movies from around the world. 
Dolpho is in love with Shirley (Shirley Moreno), but she considers Dolpho boring and has the hots for Batman. Just as Shirley is oblivious to the fact that Dolpho really IS Batman, she has no idea that her sister (Bella Flores) is secretly the sultry costumed villainess called Black Rose. 
The COLLEGE OF DUPAGE CHAPARRALS and the NASSAU COLLEGE LIONS are the two teams competing in the 2021 National Championship Game in NJCAA Division Three football. This is the first year that NJCAA football has been separated into different divisions. 
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